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;"It's a great way to engage a wider audience": John Cummings and the Natural History Museum and Science Museum
;Royal Opera House Editathon - Improving Wikipedia’s entries on dance
:''This post was written by Joe Sutherland.''
''This post was written by Rachel Beaumont of the Royal Opera House and [http://www.roh.org.uk/news/roh-editathon-improving-wikipedias-entries-on-dance published here]. Used with kind permission.''


[[File:Natural History Museum and Science Museum - The GLAM-Wiki Revolution.webm|thumb|300px|right|[[commons:File:Natural History Museum and Science Museum - The GLAM-Wiki Revolution.webm|Natural History Museum and Science Museum video]] (also [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIvXGdN-95k on YouTube])]]  
[[File:Royal_Ballet_editathon,_October_2014_13.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Some attendees enjoying the event]]


John Cummings is not one to shy away from large-scale projects. Fresh from helping build one of the largest Wikipedia endeavours ever - converting the Welsh town of Monmouth into the world’s first "Wikipedia town" - John moved on to become the Wikimedian in Residence at the [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ Natural History Museum and Science Museum] (NHM).
Our recent event brought together ballet fans with Wikipedia experts to improve the online encyclopedia’s articles on choreographer Kenneth MacMillan.


His upbringing has played a key role in developing his interests, shooing him onto a path towards the role. "I've always had an interest in natural history," he says. "I didn't study science at university, but my mum’s a garden designer, I grew up in the countryside… This is one of those roles that probably doesn't happen that often."
When was the last time you used Wikipedia? With the online encyclopedia receiving more than 6 billion page views a month in more than 250 languages, ‘very recently’ is likely to be your response. Wikipedia provides a unique way for almost anyone anywhere to find out more about the world. And it is almost entirely the work of volunteers, dubbed ‘Wikipedians’.


He held the role at the museums in South Kensington between 2013 and 2014, and helped to promote a culture of openness there as well as exploring what the institutions could do with Wikipedia.
But because the content is determined by volunteers’ interests, Wikipedia’s coverage of certain subjects is better than others. Dance is one of those areas that needs improving, which is why the Royal Opera House teamed up with Wikimedia UK to host our second '[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Ballet/October_2014_editathon editathon]'– an event bringing together ballet fans with experienced Wikipedia editors to work together on improving the resource, and so share our passion with a wider audience.


One major aspect of this was looking into content donations, and how they could be beneficial for the museums in promoting their content.
[http://www.roh.org.uk/news/editathon-offers-a-chance-to-improve-ballet%E2%80%A8-entries-on-wikipedia Last year] our focus was [http://www.roh.org.uk/people/frederick-ashton Frederick Ashton], Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet – so this year it only made sense to look at the life and works of [http://www.roh.org.uk/people/kenneth-macmillan Kenneth MacMillan]. MacMillan was one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, and a key figure in the history of The Royal Ballet.


"One of the main ways I encouraged content release under an open licence was just to tell people how Wikimedia projects are made and how many people see the information. It’s amazing - it's such a wide audience and not just in Britain.
We were hugely lucky to have with us two key MacMillan experts: [http://www.faber.co.uk/author/jann-parry/ Jann Parry], dance critic and author of ''[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/20/different-drummer-kenneth-macmillan Different Drummer]'', the definitive MacMillan biography; and [http://www.roh.org.uk/people/monica-mason Dame Monica Mason], former Director of The Royal Ballet, who created the first of her many roles for MacMillan [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzY_JDr3xws aged just 20]. With them were ROH archivists Laura Brown and Catriona Cannon, who presented historical items from the ROH Collections.


<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/10/john-cummings-natural-history-museum-science-museum/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/11/roh-editathon-improving-wikipedias-entries-on-dance/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>Read the full post here...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


|events=<!--Aim to have between 8 and 10 events listed to avoid this section taking up too much or to little space-->
|events=<!--Aim to have between 8 and 10 events listed to avoid this section taking up too much or to little space-->

Revision as of 14:38, 3 November 2014

Cymraeg | English

Wikimedia UK

Open knowledge for all

Our website

If you'd like to see what Wikimedia UK is working on, our website is the best place for our community of volunteers, donors and members to stay up to date.

About Wikimedia UK

The Wikimedia projects are special: they are written and curated by thousands of volunteers. They are also supported by voluntary donations, through Wikimedia UK, the Wikimedia Foundation and other international chapters.

Wikimedia UK is a charity registered in England and Wales that supports and promotes Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons. Our mission is to help people and organisations create and preserve open knowledge, and to help provide easy access for all. We do this by supporting volunteer editors and contributors ('Wikimedians'), by working in partnership with cultural and educational institutions, by hosting training sessions and editing events, and by acting to advocate the benefits of open knowledge generally.

There are several ways to get involved in the charity's work. You can become a member for just £5 per year. You can volunteer to work with us in a variety of ways, both online and offline. You can also make a donation (and if you're a UK taxpayer, we can claim Gift Aid). Subscribe to our Friends' Newsletter to stay in touch. Click the buttons below to learn more.

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We organise dozens of events each year, including meetups, editing events, "Backstage Pass" events at museums, workshops and conferences.

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Для української мови Вікіпедії ласка, відвідайте http://uk.wikipedia.org; для Вікімедіа Україна відвідайте http://ua.wikimedia.org
For the Ukrainian language Wikipedia please visit http://uk.wikipedia.org; for Wikimedia Ukraine please visit http://ua.wikimedia.org

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